The night she knew
by Insight-to-Light
Summary: Lying together in the old barn Heathcliff and Cathy realise what they mean to each other.


It was an uneasy night on the Yorkshire moors. The air felt unsettled, almost as though it expected what was about to happen. But how could it? How could anyone predict a single moment that belongs only to the present? The old barn creaked in the heavy wind, sending echoes of whispers dancing through the air, bouncing once before returned to whence they came. A laugh. A sign. A noise of something more than longing. A noise of something purer, something desperate.

Since their last meeting much had changed. Together Heathcliff and Cathy had watched each other grow, they had watched love develop and blossom in the others bosom. But with love comes desire and with desire desperation. They were on the floor of the old barn talking softly to each other, reminiscing about times from their childhood. The time they sat up at night whispering verses from aged poetry books, laughing as Heathcliff stumbled over obscure and simple words alike. All the days they spend playing on the moors they now called home, chasing sparrows and catching insects in glass cups. With every memory came a new wave of emotion, as if each moment they had spent together had built up to what they felt now. It was a history that could not be broken, could not be forgotten. A history that threatened to both make and end them.

Heathcliff stared deep into Cathy's eyes, his own burning dark with lust. Laying on his side facing her he gently began to draw circles along her pelvic bone. The feeling of her body below his hardened hands could be comparable to silken sheets on burnt skin. Her presence alone was enough to sooth him of his demons, the demons that haunted his black mind without her. She was to him, the saviour he could never accept.

"Cathy" he groaned into her neck as he ran his hands over her back. It had been a long time since they had lain together and he has missed her. Cathy lent back with a mixture of desire and frustration. She knew that is she allowed this to happen, that would be it, she would be his forever.

"Cathy" Heathcliff repeated but this time into Cathys mouth as he planted his first kiss. What more was there for Cathy to do but to accept the one thing she wanted most in the world: to be soul bound to the man she had fallen in love with in her childhood. Heathcliff's hand stopped drawing circles and began to move down her back and under the skirts of her dress. His mind was a fever of need and emotional as he felt his love responding to the touch that had been so long delayed. Growing beside her Cathy could feel Heathcliffs desire, taking her breath away as for the first moment she allowed her mind to step back and realise what she was letting happen, what she wanted to happen, what needed to happen.

"If we do this now, that's it Heathcliff. If we do this, then I'm yours always, and you will be mine." pulling his face above hers Cathy studied his eyes for any sign if hesitation, but she didn't see it. Instead she saw a reflection of herself, the love that she so much craved was there and she understood.

"Cathy, my Cathy" Heathcliff gently bit down on her ear "There is nothing I could possibly say that would convince you of the power of what I feel. It is beyond the capacity of my own understanding. All I know is that if I ever were to lose you" Heathcliff placed Cathy's hand over his heart "then all this would end" he moved her hand to his forehead "and this would turn to senselessness"

As their eyes locked it was as if they were seeing each other for the first time. Never in her life had Cathy Earnshaw felt more alive whilst simultaneously at peace. And never in his life had Heathcliff felt the power of his internal fire burn with such understanding of what needed to happen. They would be together, they would love each other and they would never let each other go.

As slowly as he could Heathcliff lowered his face towards Cathy's no so tantalizingly close and staring at him with an expression he had never seen before. He felt a twist in stomach and realised that he was nervous. He was nervous to finally be offered the opportunity to show Cathy a fraction of his passion.

"Heathcliff" Cathy breathed "Heathcliff I -"

"CATHY!" It was Linton. "CATHY WHERE ARE YOU HIDING YOU LITTLE BRAT!"

The lovers broke apart and the delicate thread was snapped. Snatched away from them with so little care, perhaps never to be returned. The doors opened to reveal a flushed and teary Cathy standing alone in the old barn

"What do you think you're doing?!" demanded Linton "get in the house now." slowly Cathy walked out the barn into the empty night, tears building behind her eyes. The moment was gone, and that was it. Would it return? Perhaps. But Cathy was sure of one thing, that all there was and all there ever could be was Heathcliff.


End file.
